Free-Agent EDGE Defender Markus Golden Would Upgrade Lions' Pass Rush
Now that the NFL Draft is complete, the Lions have a better idea of what positions they still need to improve.
Currently, the Lions are in the top five of the league for cap space, and general manager Bob Quinn has some extra money to use to target remaining free agents.
Even with the first wave of free agency over, there are actually quite a few decent players still on the open market.
Recently, there have been some reports that the Lions have shown interest in pass rusher Markus Golden.
Golden, 29, was originally a 2015 second-round pick of the Arizona Cardinals.
His best season came in 2016, in which he racked up 12.5 sacks.
The following year, he unfortunately tore his ACL after four games, and ended up on the injured reserve.
When he returned the following season, then-head coach Steve Wilks brought a new 4-3 defense with him.
The scheme change left Golden with a more traditional down defensive end role, which wasn't exactly a natural fit.
Subsequently, the Cardinals let Golden walk after his rookie contract expired -- mostly due to a drop in production and his struggles to find a role in the defense.
In 2019, he reunited with his former Cardinals defensive coordinator James Bettcher -- played with him from 2015-2017 -- in New York on a one-year, $3.75 million prove-it deal.
With him being healthy and in the right scheme again, he was able to produce double-digit sacks (10).
The New York Giants are trying their best to keep Golden around, but don't have a ton of cap space to satisfy Golden's demands.
They placed a rarely utilized unrestricted free-agent tender on him -- which means Golden will be forced to play for the Giants at 110 percent of his 2019 salary if he's still unsigned come July 22.
That would mean the Lions would have to pay Golden at least $4.13 million on a one-year deal to outbid the Giants.
For his production, that's a fairly cheap price tag.
In all likelihood, Golden will receive an offer from another team at a much higher rate.
As another little note, free agents signed now don't impact teams' 2021 compensatory picks. But, the unrestricted free-agent tender still makes Golden count against the comp pick formula.
Considering what the Lions did in free agency this year, they are unlikely to receive a comp pick anyway.
For the Lions, Golden could immediately be a rotational JACK backer.
It's unlikely he would ever line up off the ball, but he can drop into coverage here and there.
Now, he isn't the best athlete, and he doesn't possess elite length.
However, he does use all 260 pounds to set the edge in the run game.
Considering the fact that new third-round pick Julian Okwara is more of a pass-rush specialist at this time, Golden would see plenty of work on obvious rushing situations.
At the very least, Golden would give the Lions one more horse in the stable that can get to the passer -- a skill that head coach Matt Patricia's defense definitely needs.
Besides, a team can never have enough pass rushers.
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